Social Networks Aren’t Products

Social Networks Aren’t Products: On launch day, I found that traffic was very strong, but hardly anybody was signing up. I literally got more e-mails from people saying “what a great site!” than I actually got sign-ups. Same for the following few days. So I decided to try an experiment. I put up a preview screen saying we were taking sign-ups and allowing customers to build their profiles, but I hid the page that allowed site visitors to browse other profiles. In this way, nobody was able to see how many (or, more accurately, how few) other members of the site there were at the time. The next day, sign-ups multiplied by several staggering orders of magnitude.

I learned from this experiment early on a lesson that would repeat itself for the next two years: a social network isn’t a product as such. Rather, the product that a social network provides is access to a large pool of other people. Every social network, whether it be a subscription-based dating site or an advertising-funded general community, must grapple with this ineluctable fact. It’s what makes the rules for social networks different from utility applications like Basecamp and BlinkSale.

If a new member signs up for Highrise today, she can use the application, put in some contacts, appreciate the app’s interface and functionality directly and, if she likes it, leave a happy paying customer. Highrise with one customer is a product with one happy client who might just become an evangelist to others. On the other hand, a social network with one customer, even if it were infinitely better than MySpace in every regard, is a company with one bored and angry customer, which is to say: an utter failure. In the taxonomy of Web applications, social and utility applications are entirely different species. [Excellent grounded story.]
Source: Vitamin Interviews

Product pages: so much suck, so easy to fix

Product pages: so much suck, so easy to fix…

We’ll get to the practicum in just a moment but first, let’s talk — very briefly — about some super basic UX tenets:

  • Be nice to your users and customers (and potential customers).
  • Design as if your main goal is to inform and educate.
  • Be honest and forthcoming, while you’re at it.
  • Help your users and customers to do what they want, not what you want them to do.
  • Be consistent with your message and quality of service (and I’m including software design here, folks).
  • Scientific, measurable “usability” doesn’t necessarily make for a good experience.
  • Good design makes people feel good.

[Nice article… the graph was particularly helpful.]
Source: Vitamin Interviews

SpiralFrog Loses $3m in 3 months: Not “Getting It” is Getting Expensive

SpiralFrog Loses $3m in 3 months: Not “Getting It” is Getting Expensive:
That’s a whole lot of money to throw away but it shouldn’t come as any surprise. The SpiralFrog model is awful. Users get free downloads of DRM laden songs that they can listen to in Windows Media Player, but they have to periodically answer survey questions and view ads in order to for the songs to continue playing. The site itself looks like one big ad with music appended to it.

For a totally different take on free music downloads as an ad supported business, see our coverage of Peter Rojas’s startup RCRD LBL. RCRD LBL is hardly a dream come true, either, but it sure leaves SpiralFrog in the dust.

[Terrible. Simply an incredible misunderstanding of what the markets wants…]
Source: Read/WriteWeb

An Open Letter to Comcast and Every cable/Telco on P2P

An Open Letter to Comcast and Every cable/Telco on P2P: Thats not to say there isnt a place for P2P. There is. P2P is probably the least efficient means of distributing content in the last mile. Comcast, Time Warner, etc should charge a premium to those users who want to act as a seed and relay for P2P traffic. After all, that is why P2P is used, right ? For content distributors to avoid significant bandwidth and hosting charges. That makes it commercial traffic far more often than not. So make them pay commercial rates. [Hmmm, a different perspective.]
Source: Blog Maverick

Amazon Announced Kindle

Amazon Announced Kindle: You’re going to see two kinds of reviews: bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have. It’s that kind of product—plus Jeff Bezos’s reality-distortion field isn’t as large as Steve Jobs’s. I have used it and if someone gave me a choice of receiving an iPhone or a Kindle, I’d pick the Kindle. [Here’s what I don’t like… Guy doesn’t mention that Truemors is carried before he starts opining (although he does note it with an exclamation point later on). Second he sets you up by saying “bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have.” which immediately dismisses the opinion of people who haven’t used one as invalid, and further suggests that anyone who has used on has written positively. Wow. No wonder he was a world class evangelist. It’s a bit overstyled IMHO. but check out Mark’s take on it, and Seth’s. Granted each with their own agenda, but still. My take? It’s a digital rights issue. BigCo’s are always trying to grab them and give nothing in return. Not such a good thing. I’m trying to teach my son right now that it’s OK to give away toys he doesn’t play with anymore. Same for his books. How does this lesson fit into these corporate interests? Not.]
Source: Guy Kawasaki

There is nothing quite like a shorn scrod…

There is nothing quite like a shorn scrod: For now, I shaved my head so she's not the only one bald in the house. People have told me that they think what I did was awesome. I thank you all for your encouragement, but it is very little sacrifice.[Not that Theo isn’t cool, he is, but I agree, I’d do that in a second for Noah. Maybe more vain folks would have a tougher time with it, and would still do it. I would, and I think Theo would as well. You can see for yourself. Just go look at the picture. It tells the whole beautiful story… See? Ain’t no thing in that relationship. Lovely!]
Source: The Scriptures of Jesus

JumpBox Inc.

Applications | JumpBox Inc.: We take popular Open Source server applications, remove all the install headaches and make them much easier to use. We call our virtual appliances JumpBoxes and they are free to download and use. To earn our living, we sell access to enhanced features of the JumpBox platform and additional support options in the form of JumpBox Assurance plans. Feel free to browse around, there’s something in the library for pretty much anyone. [Nice. Where’s a Rails setup?]
Source:

The serverless Internet company

The serverless Internet company: They have about 15,000 people already creating live video channels. They have one of the most innovative Web sites I’ve ever seen.

But they don’t own a server.

How else has the world changed? Where the hell is Microsoft in this whole business? How did Microsoft screw this up so badly? Let’s get this straight. Amazon used to be a book store. Now they are hosting virualized servers for Internet companies. So much for having billions of dollars in the bank like Microsoft does, some of the smartest people in the world working in your research arms and having “monopoly” market share in operating systems. [Wow.]
Source: Scobleizer – Microsoft Geek Blogger

A Public Market for Public Music

A Public Market for Public Music | Linux Journal: I’m wondering about a project name and description. Right now I like Project Pay4Play, or p4p. With p4p tools, I should be able to say “I’ll pay for that” when I hear a song or a program I like. I want to be able to do this with any podcast or stream that I hear on my browser, my mobile phone, my PDA, my iPod, my iTunes — even my car radio. [I like the idea, but I don’t understand the value proposition.]